Sermon: Built For This.

Sermon: Built for This.

Scripture Lesson: Numbers 13:26-33 “to Moses, Aaron, and the whole community of Israel at Kadesh in the wilderness of Paran. They reported to the whole community what they had seen and showed them the fruit they had taken from the land. This was their report to Moses: “We entered the land you sent us to explore, and it is indeed a bountiful country—a land flowing with milk and honey. Here is the kind of fruit it produces. But the people living there are powerful, and their towns are large and fortified. We even saw giants there, the descendants of Anak! The Amalekites live in the Negev, and the Hittites, Jebusites, and Amorites live in the hill country. The Canaanites live along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea and along the Jordan Valley.” But Caleb tried to quiet the people as they stood before Moses. “Let’s go at once to take the land,” he said. “We can certainly conquer it!” But the other men who had explored the land with him disagreed. “We can’t go up against them! They are stronger than we are!” So they spread this bad report about the land among the Israelites: “The land we traveled through and explored will devour anyone who goes to live there. All the people we saw were huge. We even saw giants there, the descendants of Anak. Next to them we felt like grasshoppers, and that’s what they thought, too!”

Introduction: You are built for this. Phil Collins wrote a song, In the Air tonight, which says, “I can feel it coming in the air tonight, oh Lord. And I've been waiting for this moment for all my life, oh Lord. Can you feel it coming in the air tonight? Oh Lord, oh Lord.”

This must have been the way Israel felt as they waited to enter into the Promised Land. You would think that nothing could have kept Israel from entering the Promised Land after being so close to it for forty days. The Israelites were a good example of people being tied to the past, and not being able to look ahead with what God had for them in the present. Even after God led them the long way to the promised land, training them and proving them, they still had a “slave mentality.” Like the Israelites, we all have “giants”—problems in life we have to overcome. But if we choose to run to God and rely on His strength to help us, we can not only defeat our opposition, because God has been making us better, stronger and wiser through the process of life. You have been built for this moment. We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God—those whom he has called according to his plan. God will use us to do greater things than we ever imagined!

The bulk of the nation of Israel waited on the borders of Canaan for the return of the spies. They were poised to enter Canaan Land. They had God’s assurance of success. For nearly forty years, they had witnessed God's Divine power, miracles in the wilderness and God’s divine presence. They had been slaves in Egypt 400 years, yet God delivered them and showed himself to be all powerful, all knowing and everywhere present. This lesson shows us how easily Believers can vacillate between faith and doubt. No one expected the report of the spies to promote distrusted in God's power and promises. How much we are robbed by our own doubt, unbelief, and mental attitude!

When the messengers returned, the greater part discouraged the people from going forward into Canaan. The Israelites placed more confidence in the judgment of men than they did in the word of God. They had found the land as good as God had said, yet they doubted they could have it as God had promised. The Bible calls the ten men unbelievers. Their unbelief caused them to doubt themselves. They were giant slayers, but they saw themselves as grasshoppers. They doubted the promises and power of God to work through them. They magnified every danger and difficulty and filled the hearts of the people with discouragement and fear. Romans 10:17 says, “So faith comes from hearing, that is, hearing the Good News about God. The point is, before you trust, you have to listen. But unless it’s God’s promises that is preached, there's nothing to listen to. Yet fear also comes by hearing and it spread faster than faith.

Caleb and Joshua encouraged the people to go forward. Caleb does not say, Let us go up and conquer it; but, Let us go and possess it. Difficulties that are in our way, will dwindle and vanish before our lively, active faith in the power and promise of God. All things are possible, to him that believes. We must trust God and his promises more than our carnal senses. Those who trust the promises of God and follow his directions will find that His promises are true. Caleb looks on the situation as being already done. Let us go up and possess it! There is nothing to be done, but to enter without delay, and take the possession of that which our great God is now ready to give us!